Solomon: Shots in the foot derail UT's forward progress

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JEROME SOLOMON , Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, October 3, 2010

Photo: BILLY CALZADA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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After Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, left, fumbles, Texas linebacker Jared Norton is tantalizingly close to making a recovery that would have given the Longhorns a shot at tying the game late in the fourth quarter. The ball rolled out of bounds and OU kept possession. less

After Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, left, fumbles, Texas linebacker Jared Norton is tantalizingly close to making a recovery that would have given the Longhorns a shot at tying the game late in the fourth ... more

Photo: BILLY CALZADA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Solomon: Shots in the foot derail UT's forward progress

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DALLAS — If the Texas Longhorns had any real hope of making a comeback from an early 14-point hole, they needed to make some big plays at the right time.

They did that.

They forced Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones into a couple of second-half fumbles. They stopped drive after drive with key third-down stops. They even snuffed out a fake field goal attempt by tossing Sooners' holder John Nimmo for a 13-yard loss.

The Longhorns did all of those good things - often bringing the burnt-orange half of the 96,009 fans at the Cotton Bowl to its feet in anticipation of a stirring come-from-behind victory - and they still lost.

Far too often, bad and ugly came immediately after good. It was that kind of day for Texas.

At points during the 28-20 loss, the Longhorns lacked some of everything a team needs to win a game like this.

A lack of discipline.

A lack of consistently quality play-calling.

A lack of toughness, especially early.

A lack of composure.

In the end, the Longhorns even came up short in the luck department, as a couple of rolling balls did not stop where they needed them to.

"When you have a close game like this, it comes down to inches, and we just didn't get the inches," said Texas coach Mack Brown, whose squad has lost two games in a row.

No. 21 Texas (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) might fall out of the rankings for the first time in 162 weeks, the longest active streak in the country by far.

You would have a hard time convincing Bob Stoops that his eighth-ranked Sooners aren't the better squad. He came in expecting his team to control the contest and it pretty much did.

"There is a little bit of luck and good fortune in everything, sure, but you don't run the ball for 185 yards straight ahead and not have something to do with it," Stoops said. "And Landry Jones throws for (236 yards) … with two TDs and no interceptions. That's part of the game. So a lot of it is good play."

Preparation pays off

Stoops is right. The Sooners have more playmakers and were the better-prepared team.

For Texas, this loss was as much about mistakes as it was about inches, as much about talent and getting that talent to play to its potential as it was about luck of the draw - or luck of the roll.

Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis didn't appear to have a handle on how he wanted to attack the Sooners.

Win a game like that, and Davis might be applauded for throwing everything he had to confuse the Sooners. Lose it, and one leaves confused as to how a running back can go for 60 yards and a touchdown on his first carry of the game and touch the ball only three more times the rest of the day.

Brown says D.J. Monroe, whose first-quarter sprint down the left sideline might have kept the game from becoming a rout, isn't very good in pass protection, so with the Longhorns trailing throughout, he wasn't on the field as much.

The Longhorns' defense was pushed around early and flat lined up wrong a few times, according to the players and Brown, who referred questions about his defense to defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. Those type of mistakes are inexcusable in the fifth game of the season.

As are silly penalties. The Longhorns committed nine penalties in total, costing themselves 81 yards of field position, with several infractions - ones that Brown described as "game-changers" - extending the life of Sooners' drives.

"Penalties killed us," Texas junior linebacker Keenan Robinson said. "We just have to be more disciplined and stay away from those things."

From the opening possession to the Sooners' final touchdown early in the fourth quarter, Texas helped OU along.

Penalties kill momentum

Two particularly costly penalties were being offside before sacking Jones and recovering a fumble at the OU 19 and a personal-foul call that gave OU a first down after an incompletion on third-and-20.

Two plays later, DeMarco Murray pranced down the sideline and sidestepped ballet-style to stay inbounds before taking a leap to squeeze inside the pylon and give the Sooners a 28-10 lead.

Texas fought back and was inches away from recovering another Jones fumble inside the 10-yard line with just over a minute left.

The inches hurt. The mistakes hurt more.

The last of the latter was a fumbled punt by Aaron Williams with 1:02 left, ending any hope of a touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion.

The Longhorns didn't give it away, but just about every time they had a chance to take it away, they failed.